In the final runup to the opening ceremony, nervous energy inside the Olympic Park must now be overwhelming. Reports that Danny Boyle, artistic director of the opening ceremony, has spent the last few days closeted away inside his trailer, while BBC technical staff row with his creative team outside, will fade from the memory if Friday's night's show is judged a success.

But if his attempt to create a startling British spectacle with a smaller budget than recent Olympic ceremonies receives a thumbs down, then Boyle knows his vision will be the subject of a post-mortem for months to come.

Hitches during the planning and rehearsal period for the £27m show have included the injury to the Achilles tendon of the Bangladeshi dancer and choreographer Akram Khan, who still hopes to perform; the withdrawal of one of Britain's leading theatrical stars, Mark Rylance, who was to have spoken lines from The Tempest; and the last-minute dropping of a stunt motorcycle routine due to fears that the performance would over-run.

Last week, Locog, the Olympic organising committee, confirmed that there were tensions between the broadcasting staff who have to capture the sporting events and the film company hired by Boyle to record his show to its best advantage. The disputes centre on the positioning of rival cameras.

From the beginning, Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire and the National Theatre's Frankenstein, was prepared to take risks. Instead of relying on impressive numbers of heavily drilled participants, as at the Beijing ceremony, he designed a narrative about the British Isles based on the themes of Shakespeare's last play and featuring a parade of emblems of national history and culture, from cricketers, farmers and 70 live sheep, to striking miners, suffragettes and a cloudburst of real rain.

He also commissioned original music, working with Underworld, the ceremony's music directors. This British electronic music duo, comprised of Rick Smith and Karl Hyde, worked with Boyle on the soundtracks for Trainspotting, The Beach and Frankenstein. Leaks have revealed that the playlist will include songs by Delphic, the Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal and a remix of Elton John vs Pnau, as well as the new track from Muse, Survival, which has been announced as the 2012 theme.

Boyle has also called upon Sir Paul McCartney, who will close the show at midnight. Children from schools across London have been auditioned by Boyle to sing in an Olympic choir.

The show, which will be seen by up to a billion television viewers, will start at 9pm with the ringing of a giant bell designed in an east London foundry but cast in The Netherlands. The chimes of this bell, the largest tuned bell in Europe, will echo the sound of Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed's All The Bells, a national appeal for the public to ring bells in unison at 8.12am for three minutes.

The rumour mill has it that actor Kenneth Branagh has agreed to join the cast of 10,000 and step into Rylance's place to read the Isles of Wonder speech which gives the ceremony its title. Rylance decided to pull out of the ceremony after the sudden death of his 28-year-old stepdaughter.

An unprecedented level of television coverage will include dozens of dedicated HD channels from the BBC and Sky. For the first time, the Olympics will be shown in 3D, with Eurosport's coverage shown on Sky3D, including the opening and closing ceremonies.

Also for the first time, the music to both ceremonies will be made available within moments of the end of each ceremony.